Prince George's County v. Sunrise Development Ltd. Partnership

623 A.2d 1296, 330 Md. 297, 1993 Md. LEXIS 55
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedApril 22, 1993
DocketNo. 81
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 623 A.2d 1296 (Prince George's County v. Sunrise Development Ltd. Partnership) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Prince George's County v. Sunrise Development Ltd. Partnership, 623 A.2d 1296, 330 Md. 297, 1993 Md. LEXIS 55 (Md. 1993).

Opinion

RODOWSKY, Judge.

In this case the developer of a proposed twelve-story apartment building contends that the project was sufficiently advanced on May 1, 1990, to prevent downzoning. The developer’s vested rights argument ultimately rests on a single footing, one that was placed in the ground during the preceding December for a proposed column at a proposed outside corner of a proposed portico. The Prince George’s County Board of Administrative Appeals (the Board) concluded that rights had not vested in the project. The Circuit Court for Prince George’s County reversed. The Court of Special Appeals, in an unreported opinion, affirmed [300]*300the circuit court. We granted the petition of Prince George’s County for certiorari. As hereinafter explained, we shall reverse the courts below and direct reinstatement of the order of the Board.

The site, comprising 9.9591 acres, lies southeast of the interchange of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway with the Capital Beltway. The site’s western boundary abuts the Capital Beltway, but without access to that highway. To the north of the site is a business park that includes a hotel. To the south of the site are garden apartments. Proposed access to the site is in its northeast corner, via Hanover Drive which joins Hanover Parkway, which runs northeasterly to intersect Greenbelt Road, a major artery. The site has never been developed, and it is primarily woodland.

Since the 1960s the site had been zoned R-10 (multifamily high-density residential). In the mid-1980s an area which included the site was annexed by the City of Greenbelt. Sunrise Development Limited Partnership (Sunrise), the respondent, was formed in October 1986 to develop the site. There was evidence that the total project expenses incurred by Sunrise through May 1990 were approximately $2,150,-845.1

On September 28, 1989, the Prince George’s County Planning Board (the Planning Board) approved, subject to certain conditions, a site plan for “Sunrise Apartments,” a project of 467 dwelling units and a total of 885 underground and outdoor parking spaces. The plan reflects outdoor parking spaces on both sides of a driveway around the perimeter of the property, with the apartment building roughly centered on the site. The building would consist of a center core with two V-shaped wings, one on the north [301]*301side and one on the south. The plan is marked “Maximum Building Height = 110 [feet].” Entrance to the core is on the east side of the building. The arms of the V-wings on the entrance side of the building would be approximately 140 feet in length while the arms of the V-wings on the rear, or Capital Beltway, side of the building would be approximately 190 feet in length. The site plan shows a circular driveway in front of the core which passes through or under an extension from the core. This extension was referred to before the Board as a portico. Structural, construction, or detail drawings of the highrise building have never been prepared.2

The site plan depicts underground parking beneath both arms of each of the wings of the structure. One of the Planning Board’s conditions of approval of the site plan was that Sunrise obtain a variance from the zoning ordinance requirement of less than twenty-five percent coverage for the proposed parking structures. Sunrise was granted that variance on February 13, 1990. Another condition of site plan approval was the recording of an approved relocation of the easement for storm water drainage. The relocated easement was recorded December 12, 1989.

On October 13, 1989, Sunrise applied to the Prince George’s County Department of Environmental Resources (DER) for a permit for a “new structure” and grading. Accompanying the application was a site drawing captioned, “Column Footing and Rough Grading Plan.” The drawing reflects the proposed topography, notes that the total disturbed area would be 9.6 acres, and notes that the grading would be completed in eighty days. Superimposed on the topographical representation is the outline of the proposed building. At the northeast corner of the proposed portico the drawing shows a small square marked, “Install Column [302]*302Footing — See Detail.” DER considers the permit requested by Sunrise for this “structure” to be a form of building permit, in the same sense in which permits required for signs or fences are considered to be building permits.

Permit No. 9414-89-CG was issued December 20, 1989. The work description is “grading/site work/landscaping.” On the day of the issuance of the permit, a footing was poured. The cement was brought from a truck at Hanover Drive by front-end loader through the site to the footing excavation.3 The workers covered the freshly poured cement with plastic and straw, and left the site.

Two days later Sunrise installed the snow fencing also called for by the Planning Board’s condition of site approval. On December 26, Sunrise’s engineer certified the column footing to DER.

Meanwhile, the County Council of Prince George’s County was considering a general rezoning, called a Sectional Map Amendment (SMA), for an area of the County that included Greenbelt. Over the preceding two years there had been discussions between municipal officials of Green[303]*303belt and representatives of Sunrise concerning possible use of the site for business offices, but those discussions had been inconclusive. On February 27, 1990, the mayor of Greenbelt wrote to the County Council opposing continuation of R-10 zoning for the Sunrise property, opposing commercial office zoning for the property, and urging that it be reclassified to R-18C zoning (multifamily medium density residential — condominium). The mayor referred to “already unacceptable traffic congestion” in the neighborhood, to the less dense character of the adjacent residential properties, and to the “overabundance of multi-family housing units in Greenbelt” in relation to single family dwellings.

Also in February 1990 the grading permit was issued to Sunrise. There was evidence that trees were cut down on the site in April 1990. Photographs of the site, however, taken in October 1990 from numerous points of view, reflect that it was still wooded and that the felled trees had not been removed.

On March 28, 1990, the column footing and rough grading plan was revised to add two retaining walls. One wall, approximately forty feet in length, was to be located within thirty feet of the southern boundary of the site. A second wall, perhaps fifty-five feet in length, was to be placed very near the northern boundary of the property. Both locations are removed from the proposed location for the apartment building. The permit for constructing these walls was issued on May 1.

The Prince George’s County Council, sitting as a District Council, adopted the SMA, CR-39, on May 1, 1990, at approximately 10:20 a.m. It reclassified or downzoned the Sunrise property to R-18C.

The next day Sunrise poured a footing for one of the retaining walls. On May 4, DER inspectors visited the property, observed the footing for a retaining wall, and issued an immediate stop work order. The order was based, in part, on Sunrise’s failure to have an inspector [304]*304present when the footing pour was made. By its terms the stop work order continued until a certification was furnished by a registered structural engineer.

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Bluebook (online)
623 A.2d 1296, 330 Md. 297, 1993 Md. LEXIS 55, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prince-georges-county-v-sunrise-development-ltd-partnership-md-1993.